Trump Wins If The Anti-Gun Nanny Stater Bloomberg Runs

Image Credit: Midtown Comics [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Trump wins. That’s the big takeaway from a new Morning Consult poll which finds that in a three-way race with former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump gets 37 percent of voters, Democrat leader Hillary Clinton gets 36 percent and Bloomberg, an independent, gets 13 percent.

You remember Bloomberg, another billionaire with New York values who keeps thinking about running for president. And like that other billionaire running, Bloomberg has a history of supporting abortion and not being sure which political party he wants to belong, not to mention his infamous efforts to suppress our Constitutional right to Keep and bear arms. And don’t forget Bloomberg is the definition of an American nanny state politician. Bloomberg was a Democrat before 2001, had to become a Republican to be elected mayor in 2001, and then had to become an Independent to get reelected for his third term.

Morning Consult correctly notes that Bloomberg’s low name recognition may hurt him, 43 percent say they have not heard of him or have no opinion about him. But that could change if he spends $1 billion on the campaign as both he and Trump say they are willing to do. Bloomberg can easily outspend Trump. Bloomberg is worth $41 billion, more than four times as rich as Trump.

Another interesting findings from the new poll is that a Bloomberg candidacy would likely hurt Hillary more than the Donald:

In a two-way race, Clinton edges out Trump by a 44 to 42 percent margin, with 14 percent of voters saying they are undecided. In a match-up including Bloomberg, however, Clinton’s support declines by eight points, to 36 percent, and Trump’s support declines by five points, to 37 percent. With Bloomberg in the race, Clinton’s support would decline the most among independents (36 to 24 percent) and adults under 30 years old (52 to 41 percent).

According to the poll Hillary manages to beat Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio:

She gets 38 percent support in a potential match up with Ted Cruz, who gets 34 percent, while Bloomberg pulls 11 percent of voters. The former Secretary of State also leads with 38 percent in a potential contest with Marco Rubio, who gets 33 percent, and Bloomberg, who gets 10 percent.

The poll was conducted from January 14-17, 2016, among registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent.